Monday, January 18, 2010

Turning stamps into clear mount....

Alrighty folks - I'm so excited about this clear mount option that Stampin' Up! is now offering, and even more excited that I learned how to turn my unmounted stamps into a clear mount stamp....and here's how you do it.... Start with your unmounted stamps...

I took a photo copy of the sticker sheet before I do anything. This will serve as my "cover" on my stamp case - like the clear mount sets have now.

I start with my stamps, peel off the paper backing to expose the foam. Then I lay the sticker that would have normally gone onto the wood block onto the foam, being careful to line it up really good.

More than likely the sticker will be too big. I just go around it with my Craft and Rubber Scissors from SU! - you know, those ones that we USED to use ALL THE TIME to trim down our stamps before SU! went die cut!!!!. You might notice that you clip a little of the foam here and there, and that won't hurt anything as long as you don't take a huge chunk out of the foam!

Now for the magic ingredient! Believe it or not.....TOMBOW!!! You don't need very much at all, just a little dot on small stamps, a couple of dots on larger stamps.

See that little dot of Tombow on the back of the stamp?

Brush it all over the sticker with a foam brush. It will dry clear, don't get too worried about seeing streaks in the glue - it will be fine! (sorry about the blurry pic!)

Use your judgement on how much to use on a large stamp - this stamp is about the size of my hand - and really, I still didn't use that much glue!

Once you have the glue spread around with your foam brush - you need to let it dry for several hours or even overnight. This is what turns the Tombow into repositionable glue.

This stamp I "treated" yesterday, it's now ready to go. One thing you will notice is that they have a LOT of "tack" to them. You will want to remove some of this tack by pressing the stamp onto your hand or jeans - anything that will get rid of some of that stickiness.

And, voila - you now have a clear mount stamp!!!

There you have it!!! You can also un-mount your already mounted stamp sets. Carefully peel the sticker off of the wood block. To remove your stamp from the wood, put it in the microwave for about 5 seconds, then the foam and rubber should peel right off the wood block. Now, you can put the sticker on the foam - you may need to use a bit of SNAIL on the foam to get the sticker to stick again. Then go ahead with the same process you did with the Tombow! EASY PEASY!!!

And, if you don't already have Tombow among your supplies, give me a shout - I can hook you up! AND, SU! is offering empty stamp cases - 4 cases for $4.95. The amount of space you save is amazing, and I LOVE the fact that I can see where I'm stamping!!!

14 comments:

Wow, Jen! I'm just about ready to go unmount all of my old wood mounted sets! Ok, maybe not all of them but I'm for sure going to try a few to start with. I'm running out of storage space and could use the smaller cases for sure!!! Thanks for such a great job. See ya Sunday!

They say with the Clear Mount stamps you can rinse them off with water. Do you think that would effect the Tombow (make it gummy)? I guess the scenario I'm envisioning is one of my stamps falling on the carpet and getting fuzzy and then getting gummy or not releasing the fuzz when I tried to rinse it off. It sounds like a GREAT idea. Hoping there are no drawbacks 'cause I can't wait to try it :-)

I've been thinking of organizing my stamps by category in plastic drawers. Right now, most of them are wood backed. This tip will save so much space! (Not to mention, when all the stamps are together, they are heavy!) I think you could stick these onto a sheet (plastic) type cutting mat and layer more in a drawer. :) Thanks!